Voter fraud a fantasy? Just what country do you think this is? Were you in suspended animation during the ACORN scandal? Your assertion that elderly don’t have birth certificates is trite and insulting. The poor can’t get benefits without identification. Try walking into a welfare office and demand a check without ID.

Anything of value is worth working for. If someone wants to vote, then help them get an ID, don’t hand them cigarettes and food vouchers for their signature. It’s dehumanizing, demoralizing, and akin to prostitution.

An election advocacy group called True the Vote has data that indicates “in 2012 as many as 24 million voter registrations were invalid; more than 2.75 million people were registered to vote in more than one state; various counties in Indiana and Ohio had more registered voters than residents and 160 counties in 19 states had over 100 percent voter registration. For voter fraud being ‘virtually non-existent’, that’s a remarkable handful of incidents that looked like the real McCoy to the local election officials, state investigators, grand juries and prosecutors!”

That’s just scratching the surface.

Our neighbor Mexico demands voter ID and their ID system is so good that Mexico’s voter ID has become the country’s de facto identification document and is readily accepted as positive proof-of-identity by merchants, banks, government officials, and citizens nationwide. Mexico provides this ID at a moderate cost for those of means and at no cost to the poor. The only country that illegals from Mexico have a sporting chance of unlawfully casting a vote in is the USA.

Crying out for “poor and elderly” doesn’t lend veracity to your assertions that voter ID is an impediment to “getting their voices heard”. In fact, it undermines the integrity of our democratic process. Helping others get valid IDs and allowing them to vote in a secure, fraud-free environment, on the other hand, furthers the dignity of the individual, empowers identity, and adds meaning and value to what should be a hallmark of our nation’s attitude toward the right to vote.

3 Comments

Howard HillsJune 5, 2014 at 11:22 pm

Good job, you nailed this. I posted a comment and his intolerance for civil discourse was conspicuous in his response.

Ari GraysonJune 7, 2014 at 9:16 pm

Sorry Mike, but True the Vote is a conservative advocacy group and an offshoot of the King Street Patriots, a nonprofit Tea Party organization. It’s hardly non-partisan. But let’s assume for a moment that the numbers are correct. As it relates to in-person voter fraud it’s worthy of nothing more and a big “so what.”

You quote True the Vote saying that “in 2012 as many as 24 million voter registrations were invalid; more than 2.75 million people were registered to vote in more than one state; various counties in Indiana and Ohio had more registered voters than residents and 160 counties in 19 states had over 100 percent voter registration.” There are many reasons and explanations for these numbers, but none of them speak to voter fraud. People move from State to State and may therefore be registered in more than one State, but that does not mean they vote multiple times. Lists of registered voters may not be purged when people die or move. The data was compiled by comparing U.S. Census data with U.S. Election Assistance Commission information. It may also be the case that fewer people respond to the census in some areas than in others, thereby leading to the discrepancy.

As I said, there are many potential explanations, but even were we to take the numbers on face value you have not demonstrated fraud to be an outcome as that is not what the information you cite is discussing.

Mike RybahJune 14, 2014 at 10:48 pm

Sorry Ari.

I guess eyewitness accounts of fraud don’t matter. If you are ever on trial and a witness comes to your defense, I will request that the judge and jury ignore the witness’ account. That way you will be protected from irrelevant information that is not supported by partisan statistics.

In your world, information from partisan groups account for nothing. Using your guidelines, I can ignore all information from certain agents I deem partisan. Right? You are partisan therefore I hereby deem all you say as invalid. You have created an amazingly useless framework to create community dialogue – something which makes you look foolish and juvenile. I envision you with your fingers in your ears shouting “blah blah blah blah” until the other person stops talking.

You tout your “doctor” title as if it brings credibility to everything you say. You have lived your life in isolation from the trials and travails of most people for whom you claim to be an advocate – yet what you are doing is decreasing their human dignity and lowering the value of their vote and the concept of voting as a whole.